“We have decided to be happy because it is good for our health.”

Yesterday for the first time I read this quote written on the bottom of a sign inside Boulange Bakery on Union St (SF) — it was right above the counter with sugar, jam, cream, nutella, etc. Although I had visited the same bakery and spread raspberry preserves on my croissant there numerous times before, I had not noticed the quote until now — pure genius. We often look externally for happiness — is it social, cultural, economic, or geographic? Or is it really just as simple as deciding to be happy?

Denmark is the happiest nation and Zimbabwe the the most glum, he found. (Zimbabwe’s longtime ruler Robert Mugabe was sworn in as president for a sixth term Sunday after a widely discredited runoff in which he was the only candidate. Observers said the runoff was marred by violence and intimidation.) The United States ranks 16th…. “The results clearly show that the happiest societies are those that allow people the freedom to choose how to live their lives,” Inglehart said.

Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination, psychologists agree. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”… One route to more happiness is called “flow,” an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you’re doing than from how you do it.